RT in the Finals of the Monte Carlo TV Festival

MOSCOW, April 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- RT has made it to the finals of the Monte Carlo Television Festival where it is competing against SKY NEWS, BBC, CNN and Al Jazeera English.

RT's 2-day coverage of the presidential election in Russia in March 2012 is nominated for the Golden Nymph award and is in the finals in the "Best 24-Hour News Programme" category. RT anchors Anissa Naouai and Kevin Owen delivered round the clock coverage of all election news – from opposition meetings to the announcement of the preliminary election results. RT's correspondents sent updates from the Central Election Committee HQ, the candidates' headquarters, and Moscow streets to the mobile studio stationed in the heart of the Russian capital, overlooking the Kremlin. Prominent analysts, newsmakers and politicians weighed in live as events unfolded.

RT's Golden Nymph category competitors are the UK's SKY News and BBC, United States' CNN, Qatar's Al Jazeera English, as well as Canadian CBC, the GMA Network from the Philippines, and Bulgaria's BNT. Programs submitted by CNN, BBC, SKY News, and Al Jazeera English cover the uprising in Libya and death of Jamahiriya leader Muammar Gaddafi. The jury comprises influential names from the TV news world.

The Monte Carlo Television Festival was established in 1961 by Prince Rainier III of Monaco and since then has become the world's largest forum for TV films, shows, news reports, and news programing. The festival top prize is a gold copy of the "Salmacis" Nymph statuette commonly known as the Golden Nymph. The original copy is preserved in the Louvre Museum.

The RT network provides news coverage in three languages and is the first Russian TV network to have been nominated for the prestigious Emmy International News award in the "News" category. RT is available to an audience of over 480 million people, 25% of the world's cable television subscribers. In 2011, RT became the world's first TV news channel to get 500,000,000 views on YouTube and is currently one of YouTube's major news content providers.

Additionally, RT runs the RT America news channel operating from its studio in Washington, D.C., a documentary channel RTDoc, and a FreeVideo project. RT also streams online at the network's website RT.com.